An epic summer of hiking - Chapter 1

171 miles and 32,706 feet of elevation.  Our 2024 hiking totals.  EPIC!  And we had the opportunity to complete three of our "bucket list" hikes in Glacier National Park - a truly blessed summer in every way.  Welcome to Chapter 1 - Jackson Glacier Overlook to Lake McDonald.

On July 31 at 7.30 am, we left the house with great anticipation.  We'd had reservations for this route once before, but had to cancel when an early September snow made hiking a little treacherous.  This time, the weather held and we were also fortunate to have skies clear of any smoke!

At 10.30 am, we hoisted our packs and began the hike to Gunsight Lake, our first camping spot for this three-night trip.  Within a half mile, we ran into a ranger who asked to see our camping permit - the first time that has ever happened to us since we started camping in the Park 6 years ago.  She warned us about goats at Lake Ellen Wilson and Sperry - they like to eat sweaty clothes and other items.  Good to know!

 

Photo below shows Jackson Glacier.

We stopped for a break just shy of Florence Falls.  Not even 100 feet further was a better break spot - a bridge by a stream.  Lesson?  Use our map to be more strategic about break locations!  As expected (we had hiked to Florence Falls once before), the trail was thick with Thimbleberry, some of it up our shoulders.  But the Falls is so worth it, especially with the stunning wildflowers!

 

 

(We saw three piles of bear scat along this stretch of trail!)  When we arrived at Gunsight Lake, only one campsite was occupied.  As we enjoyed a cup of coffee, the first part of a group of 10 arrived.  As we would learn, 5 couples from Chicago shared our itinerary - we would see the "Chicago 10" the next two nights as well.

The two-point buck in the photo below was wandering around the campsite, and the ground squirrel on top of the dead branch was keeping lookout - I had never seen them climb up on a branch like that!  We had an early dinner to avoid the crush of 10 + people in the food prep area, and took our chairs to the beach while everyone else was eating.  As usual, Man with Hat beat me at gin, 3-1!  We turned in at 8 pm, and I slept well. (7.8 miles; 1,206 ft. elevation)

We had a goal to get up at 7 and leave camp at 9.  I think I woke up at 5 and couldn't really get back to sleep.  We heard "crashing" in the brush near the tent - turned out to be the buck from last night and a doe.  We got up around 6.30 and deconstructed the tent to give it a chance to dry while we had coffee and breakfast.  We didn't rush but didn't dally and we still left camp at 9!  The hike to Gunsight Pass is stunning.  Mountains. Snow fields.  Myriad of waterfalls.  Cascades of wildflowers.  As we approached the Pass, Man with Hat quoted Alfred Wainwright " 'Tis a walk in paradise."  (In the third photo below, look carefully to see me perched on a rock, dwarfed by the landscape!)

We passed at least 8 Marmots along the trail, and shortly before we arrived at the official goat observation point, I spied a goat sitting on a rock.  In the photo to the right, Man with Hat and a goat are peeking at each other!  Over the course of the hour, we saw more than 7 goats, including a parade of 5 that came by on the trail - check out the video!  A baby was bleating ... so cute!

We had to cross a small snowfield before the Pass, and another male goat walked across the rocky outcropping to lie down on a patch of snow.  We turned around to look at the valley we had climbed, and Gunsight Lake sparkling below us.  

 

Looking forward, the bright teal of Lake Ellen Wilson is revealed.  More waterfalls, including one that was quite tricky to cross.  Plentiful flowers.  A mama goat and a yearling.  High on a snowfield near the turnoff for the campground, Man with Hat spotted a large deer with at least a four-point rack - the picture is not the best - I had to zoom in closely to make the deer visible.

We arrived at camp at 2 pm and picked the pitch farthest from the cooking area - the Chicago 10 would join us, and we wanted to have some distance.  (By the way, this was one of the most unique food prep sites we have used - look at this massive rock overhang!)  Unfortunately, this also put us very far from the pit toilet!

We hung our food, set up the tent and went for a dip - so refreshing.  Man with Hat went fishing while I finished up our goat survey and hiking notes.  A Spotted Sandpiper kept me company along the shore.

(5.5 miles.  1,902 feet elevation)

During dinner, a Marmot came along to sniff for handouts (he went away empty-pawed).  See the video below.  This was a harbinger of the night that lay ahead.  Remember the ranger had warned us about goats licking for salt?  Well, this was a night we will always remember for the incredibly persistent four-point buck, which kept bothering our packs that were hung in a tree near the tent.  We didn't want to take up space on the bear hang with our packs, so we had put them in black plastic bags and hoisted them as high in a tree as we could.  At 2 am, we gave up trying to scare it off after it had made multiple visits, and added our packs to the bear hang.  In the morning, we realized that it had completely shredded the bottom of the bags, trying to get at the packs!  Not only that - shorts belonging to Man with Hat, originally looped over a tree to dry, were found in shrubbery, soggy with saliva and full of holes!

 

The food prep area was in disarray - while we made breakfast, this little goat tried to come over and check out the menu.  Could it have been the culprit?

As we completed our final packing, a Marmot stole a trekking pole belonging to Man with Hat, who had to chase it through the pine trees to get it back.  And then, the little thing tried to grab one of the towels.  When the ranger warned us about the goats, little did we know that ALL the wildlife would be after the salt!  

We left Lake Ellen Wilson at 9 am and arrived at Sperry Campground at 11.  The hike was steep, so frequent pauses gave us plentiful opportunities to admire the views.  I loved this "garden" made up of red rocks.  Can you see me in the middle?

Goats were everywhere at the campground - we found it quite ironic that we hike to remote places and don't see a single goat - come to this campground and here they are!  We put everything without a scent in the tent, and food/scented items in the bear boxes - we were about to climb to Comeau Pass and we wanted to travel light.  (Can you see the sliver of lake behind the tent?  That is Lake McDonald, the end of our trip/destination for the next day.)

Comeau Pass is a popular destination, especially for those staying at Sperry Campground or the Sperry Chalet.  It is one of the few places in the Park that enables you to walk out onto a glacier, Sperry Glacier.  As we found out, the journey to the Pass is pretty darn special, too.  Pika, and their endearing "eek" calls.  Constantly changing terrain - "rock gardens", waterfalls, wildflowers.  Near the top, plateaus appear, which were not visible from below.  Pools on the plateaus are mirrors for the surrounding mountains, and the source of the waterfalls that pour from one level to the next in a never-ending cascade.  

The final ascent is a set of stairs that was hewn into the rock decades ago - a garden hose rope aids you, especially since it appears these steps were made for a Sasquatch.

We have been told that, 20 years ago, you would step from these stairs directly onto the glacier.  Now, you can't even see the glacier when you emerge.

By this point, we had hiked 7.5 miles and 2,970 feet, including the stretch from Lake Ellen Wilson.  We needed a break!  I took a lot of joy in watching the group of 10 goats that were eating and competing over a mineral deposit - I learned a lot about the group dynamics in 30 minutes.  Ultimately, we decided not to go to the glacier.  We had already done a lot of hiking, it was not clear how to get to the glacier or how far it is, and we still had a goat observation to do on they way down!  (No, the goats in the picture and the videos don't count because they are not at the designated observation point.)

We re-traced our steps, completed our goat observation and were back at camp at 6.  

 

Tired.  A quick rinse at the pond was somewhat refreshing, although the sun was still beating down on this area, which had been the site of a forest fire in 2017.  We were grateful that the Chicago 10 had rigged some tarps over the food prep area to provide some relief.

We had our dinner and were in the tent at 9 - it was warm, but our tiredness rocked us to sleep pretty readily.

(11.5 miles; over 3,000 feet of elevation)

The goats were still hanging around the next morning, and as soon as we cleared our tent site, they moved in - looking for salt!

We bid farewell to the Sperry Chalet - we had enjoyed this hike immensely, but we couldn't imagine doing it again soon.  Reservations at the Sperry Chalet are tough to come by, but in the future I would be interested in staying there and enjoying one of the meals that they prepare in the dining room next door.

The three miles down to the trailhead at Lake McDonald is not that interesting, especially compared to the scenery we had seen for the last three days.  So we made good time with a short stop at a stream to rest our quads and knees (it was ALL downhill).  A nice couple captured our smiling faces at the end!

And no hike is complete without a messy burger and an adult beverage!  This time we changed it up, stopping for Mudman burgers and taking them home.  Oh, so good!

Watch this space for Chapter 2 - the Renegades ride again!

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Linking up with a few blogging buddies this week!

Linking up with LeeAnna at Not Afraid of Color for I Like Thursday.

Prompt for this week is: What is your favorite fall movie? I am not sure what qualifies for a fall movie, but Hocus Pocus and Freaky Friday come to mind!

Linking up with Eileen at Saturday's Critters

 

Linking to Mosaic Monday